Systems and methods for generating and using a digital pass

ABSTRACT

A system, method, and article of manufacture for generating a digital pass is disclosed. The method may comprise retrieving a plurality of identity attributes, and grouping a subset of identity attributes in the plurality of identity attributes to generate at least one digital pass. The method may further comprise grouping a subset of static identity attributes and a subset of dynamic identity attributes to generate a digital pass.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, claims priority to and thebenefit of, U.S. Ser. No. 13/193,282 filed on Jul. 28, 2011 and entitled“SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GENERATING AND USING A DIGITAL PASS,” which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present disclosure generally relates to a digital pass.

2. Related Art

Although online (or web-based) purchasing has gained popularity inrecent years, certain shortcomings have hampered the growth of theweb-based economy from its inception. For example, consumers arecurrently required to provide a variety of personal information to anymerchant from which they wish to purchase a good or service. However,consumers are frequently reluctant to share personal information withunknown or vaguely known merchants. Further, consumers must trust thatthe merchant's website sufficiently encrypts the required personalinformation before passing it over the interne to the merchant's paymentprocessing system. Further still, assuming a consumer is willing toaccept these risks, the consumer is required (each time the consumermakes a purchase) to enter his personal information. Thus, a consumer'srisk of fraud and identity theft increases in proportion to the numberof online transactions in which a consumer participates. By someestimates, these factors encourage 25% (Forrester Research) to 75%(shop.org) of consumers to drop out of the purchasing process at thepoint of checkout.

In addition to these problems, a great wealth of information is losteach day. For instance, the large variety of merchant websites makes itdifficult, if not impossible, to aggregate data about which products andservices a consumer likes. Indeed, merchants often regard such data asproprietary. Although consumers might benefit from insights based upontheir purchasing habits, currently these insights are isolated betweenmerchants.

Several prior art systems have attempted to solve one or more of theseproblems. For example, Google has developed Google checkout, a tool withwhich an individual completing a purchase online may trust Google toprocess a transaction. Google may transfer payment to the appropriatemerchant. Similarly, Amazon has developed a 1-click ordering tool thatpermits an Amazon customer to make purchases online with a single buttonclick. Amazon 1-click ordering is limited to Amazon customers. Withrespect to the loss of data resulting from disparate merchant systems,certain data aggregators (e.g., RapLeaf) have attempted to targetmarketing to consumers based upon social networking informationassociated with each consumer. Likewise, Facebook offers a variety ofsocial plugins (e.g., a login button) which merchant developers may addto their websites, and which consumers having Facebook accounts may useto login from a merchant's website.

Although a variety of solutions or partial solutions have been developedin response to some of the problems described above, consumers are stillunable to make purchases online in a relaxed and effortless manner.Further, many merchants are reluctant to hand over data about theircustomers' purchasing habits and interests to a third party (e.g.,Google), as doing so may hamper their ability to target marketing andoffer discounts to their loyal customers. Thus, what is needed is asystem with which consumers may safely and quickly conduct onlinetransactions and which merchants are encouraged to adopt and support.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure includes a system, method, and article ofmanufacture for generating a digital pass. The method may compriseretrieving a plurality of identity attributes, and grouping one or moreidentity attributes in the plurality of identity attributes to generateat least one digital pass. The method may further comprise associating aprivacy setting with one or more of the identity attributes in theplurality of identity attributes, grouping one or more static identityattributes and one or more dynamic identity attributes to generate atleast one digital pass, linking a first digital pass to a second digitalpass based upon a familial relationship, a shared identity attribute,and/or a shared preference.

The method may further comprise transmitting an identity attribute to asecond system in order to log a user of the digital pass into the secondsystem. The method may further comprise receiving item informationassociated with a transaction request, retrieving transaction accountinformation associated with a user of the digital pass, approving, basedupon the transaction account information, the transaction request, andtransmitting only a shipping address of the user to a merchant. Furtherstill, the method may comprise receiving a location of a user of thedigital pass and/or biometric data associated with the user of thedigital pass, and transmitting an offer to the user of the digital passand/or transmitting an identity attribute to a merchant, based upon oneof the location and/or biometric data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings. The left-most digit of a reference numberidentifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system diagram in accordance with anembodiment.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for generating adigital pass.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for linkingdigital pass users.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for processing atransaction request using a digital pass.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for assigning apreference to a digital pass user based upon a relationships identityattribute.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for paying a feebased upon a digital pass and a location and/or biometric associatedwith a user of the digital pass.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiments byway of illustration and their best mode. While these exemplaryembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice the disclosure, it should be understood thatother embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanicalchanges may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Thus, the detailed description herein is presented forpurposes of illustration only and not of limitation. For example, thesteps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented.Moreover, any of the functions or steps may be outsourced to orperformed by one or more third parties. Furthermore, any reference tosingular includes plural embodiments, and any reference to more than onecomponent may include a singular embodiment.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution,” “transactionaccount issuer,” and “payment processor” may include any person, entity,software and/or hardware that offers transaction account services.Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” the financialinstitution may represent any type of bank, lender or other type ofaccount issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

Phrases and terms similar to “business”, “merchant”, “supplier” or“seller” may be used interchangeably with each other and shall mean anyperson, entity, distributor system, software and/or hardware that is aprovider, broker and/or any other entity in the distribution chain ofgoods or services and/or that receives payment or other consideration.For example, a merchant may be a grocery store, a retail store, a travelagency, a service provider, an on-line merchant or the like. Forexample, a supplier may request payment for goods sold to a buyer whoholds an account with a transaction account issuer.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument,” or “transaction account product” may be usedinterchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument. As usedherein, an account code may or may not be associated with a physicalfinancial instrument.

Phrases and terms similar to a “buyer,” “participant”, “consumer,” and“user” may include any person, entity, software and/or hardware thatreceives items in exchange for consideration (e.g. financial payment).For example, a buyer may purchase, lease, rent, barter or otherwiseobtain items from a supplier and pay the supplier using a transactionaccount.

Phrases and terms similar to an “item” may include any good, service,information, experience, reward, points, coupons, credits, monetaryequivalent, anything of value, something of minimal or no value, etc.

As used herein, a biometric may include a user's voice, fingerprint,facial, ear, signature, vascular patterns, DNA sampling, hand geometry,sound, olfactory, keystroke/typing, iris, retinal or any other biometricrelating to recognition based upon any body part, function, system,attribute and/or other characteristic, or any portion thereof.

Phrases or terms similar to a “processor” (such as a payment processor)may include a company (e.g., a third party) appointed (e.g., by amerchant) to handle transactions for merchant banks. Processors may bebroken down into two types: front-end and back-end. Front-end processorshave connections to various transaction accounts and supplyauthorization and settlement services to the merchant banks' merchants.Back-end processors accept settlements from front-end processors and,via The Federal Reserve Bank, move money from an issuing bank to themerchant bank. In an operation that will usually take a few seconds, thepayment processor will both check the details received by forwarding thedetails to the respective account's issuing bank or card association forverification, and may carry out a series of anti-fraud measures againstthe transaction. Additional parameters, including the account's countryof issue and its previous payment history, may be used to gauge theprobability of the transaction being approved. In response to thepayment processor receiving confirmation that the transaction accountdetails have been verified, the information may be relayed back to themerchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. In response tothe verification being denied, the payment processor relays theinformation to the merchant, who may then decline the transaction.

Phrases or terms similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may includean application service provider that authorizes payments fore-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortarmerchants. A payment gateway may protect transaction account details byencrypting sensitive information, such as transaction account numbers,to ensure that information passes securely between the customer and themerchant and also between merchant and payment processor.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

As used herein, “issue a debit”, “debit” or “debiting” refers to eithercausing the debiting of a stored value or prepaid card-type financialaccount, or causing the charging of a credit or charge card-typefinancial account, as applicable.

Phrases or terms similar to “transaction account” may include anyaccount that may be used to facilitate a financial transaction. A“transaction account” as used herein refers to an account associatedwith an open account or a closed account system (as described herein).The transaction account may exist in a physical or non-physicalembodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed innon-physical embodiments such as an account number, frequent-flyeraccount, and telephone calling account or the like. Furthermore, aphysical embodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as afinancial instrument.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions betweenthe user and merchant through any suitable communication means, such as,for example, a telephone network, intranet, the global, public Internet,a point of interaction device (e.g., a point of sale (POS) device,personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, kiosk, etc.), onlinecommunications, off-line communications, wireless communications, and/orthe like.

An “account”, “account code”, or “account number”, as used herein, mayinclude any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate,smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access,interact with or communicate with the system (e.g., one or more of anauthorization/access code, personal identification number (PIN),Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like). The accountnumber may optionally be located on or associated with a rewards card,charge card, credit card, debit card, prepaid card, telephone card,embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account. The systemmay include or interface with any of the foregoing cards or devices, ora transponder and RFID reader in RF communication with the transponder(which may include a fob). Typical devices may include, for example, akey ring, tag, card, cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable ofbeing presented for interrogation.

Moreover, the system, computing unit or device discussed herein mayinclude a “pervasive computing device,” which may include atraditionally non-computerized device that is embedded with a computingunit. Examples can include watches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances,restaurant tables embedded with RF readers, wallets or purses withimbedded transponders, etc.

The account code may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A customer account code may be, for example, asixteen-digit transaction account code, although each transactionaccount provider has its own numbering system, such as the fifteen-digitnumbering system used by American Express. Each company's transactionaccount codes comply with that company's standardized format such thatthe company using a fifteen-digit format will generally use three-spacedsets of numbers, as represented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. Thefirst five to seven digits are reserved for processing purposes andidentify the issuing bank, card type, etc. In this example, the last(fifteenth) digit is used as a sum check for the fifteen digit number.The intermediary eight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identifythe customer. A merchant account code may be, for example, any number oralpha-numeric characters that identify a particular merchant forpurposes of card acceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or thelike.

It should be noted that the transfer of information in accordance withthe present disclosure, may be completed in a format recognizable by amerchant system or account issuer. In that regard, by way of example,the information may be transmitted from an RFID device to an RFID readeror from the RFID reader to the merchant system in magnetic stripe ormulti-track magnetic stripe format.

In one exemplary embodiment, a system, method and/or computer programproduct for generating a digital pass is disclosed. As used herein, adigital pass may include all or part of a consumer's personalinformation. A digital pass may be based upon, derived from and/orinclude, for example, a consumer's name, address, ethnicity, gender,other background information, spend history, interests, relationships,preferences, hobbies, social networks, mobile device information,transaction account information, and the like. A digital pass may confera variety of benefits upon a consumer and/or upon a merchant. Forexample, a digital pass may permit a consumer to make a purchase from amerchant's website securely and without releasing personal informationto the merchant over the internet. Likewise, a digital pass may increasea merchant's online sales, as it may encourage consumers to purchasemore freely online.

Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary system 100 for generating and using adigital pass is shown. System 100 may comprise a web-client 102, anetwork 104, a digital pass server system 106, a merchant server system108, a digital sign 110, a transaction processing system 112, and/or avehicle 114.

A web-client 102 may include any device (e.g., personal computer/mobilecommunication device) which communicates via any network 104. Aweb-client 104 may be associated with and/or used by a consumer, amerchant, or both. A web-client 102 may comprise a variety of browsingsoftware or browser applications (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer,Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or any other of the myriadsoftware packages available for browsing the internet). Such browserapplications may comprise Internet browsing software installed within acomputing unit or a system to conduct online transactions and/orcommunications. These computing units or systems may take the form of acomputer or processor, or a set of computers/processors, although othertypes of computing units or systems may be used, including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, personal digital assistants, cellularphones, smart phones (e.g., iPhone®, BlackBerry®, Droid®, etc.) set-topboxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, such as iPads, iMACs, and MacBooks,kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS) devices and/or terminals,televisions, or any other device capable of receiving data over anetwork 104.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a web-client 102 mayinclude an operating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000/CE/Mobile,OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, PalmOS, etc.) as well as variousconventional support software and drivers typically associated withcomputers. A web-client 102 may implement security protocols such asSecure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). Aweb-client 102 may implement one or more application layer protocols,including, for example, http, https, ftp, and sftp. Transactionsoriginating at a web client may pass through a firewall (not shown; seebelow) in order to prevent unauthorized access from users of othernetworks.

A network 104 may comprise any electronic communications system ormethod which incorporates software and/or hardware components.Communication may be accomplished through any suitable communicationchannels, such as, for example, a telephone network, an extranet, anintranet, Internet, point of interaction device (point of sale device,personal digital assistant, smart phone, cellular phone (e.g., iPhone®,Palm Pilot®, Blackberry®), kiosk, etc.), online communications,satellite communications, off-line communications, wirelesscommunications, transponder communications, local area network (LAN),wide area network (WAN), virtual private network (VPN), networked orlinked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or any suitable communication ordata input modality. Moreover, although a network 104 may be describedherein as being implemented with TCP/IP communications protocols, thenetwork 104 may also be implemented using IPX, Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS,OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH), or any number of existingor future protocols. If the network 104 is in the nature of a publicnetwork, such as the Internet, it may be advantageous to presume thenetwork 104 to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers. Specificinformation related to the protocols, standards, and applicationsoftware utilized in connection with the Internet is generally known tothose skilled in the art and, as such, need not be detailed herein. See,for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2COMPLETE, various authors, (Sybex 1999); DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY,MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IP CLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997)and DAVID GOURLEY AND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002),the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The various system components described herein may be independently,separately or collectively coupled to the network 104 via one or moredata links including, for example, a connection to an Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) over a local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network 104 maybe implemented variously. For example, network 104 may be implemented asan interactive television (ITV) network. The systems and methodsdisclosed herein contemplate the use, sale and/or distribution of anygoods, services or information over any network having functionalitysimilar to that described above with reference to network 104.

Digital pass server system (“DPS”) 106 may comprise any type of hardwareand/or software (e.g., a computer server) configured or configurable togenerate and maintain a digital pass. Typically, such a server comprisesa rack mountable server appliance miming a suitable server application(e.g., IIS).

Transaction processing system (“TPS”) 112 may comprise any type ofhardware and/or software configured or configurable to process atransaction. Typically, a transaction processing system 112 comprisesone or more servers, where the one or more servers may receive atransaction request from a merchant or consumer and approve or deny therequest based upon the consumer's account balance, available credit, andthe like.

A DPS 106 and/or a TPS 112 may comprise, individually or in combination,a “backend” system. A backend system may further comprise one or moreweb servers (not shown) and/or one or more payment gateways (not shown,described above). A web server may comprise hardware of softwareconfigured or configurable to host a website. A backend system may beowned/operated by a transaction account issuer, e.g., American Express.

Merchant server system 108 may comprise any type of hardware and/orsoftware (e.g., a computer server) configured or configurable to receivedata associated with a consumer's digital pass. Typically, such a servercomprises a rack mountable server appliance running a suitable serverapplication (e.g., IIS).

Vehicle 114 may comprise any hardware and/or software suitablyconfigured to cause movement. Vehicle 114 may be of any make ormanufacture, provided it is sufficiently networked—whether at thefactory or via retrofit—such that it may communicate (wirelessly) withdigital pass server system 106.

Digital sign 110 may comprise any software and/or hardware suitablyconfigured for any type of interactive digital display. Digital sign 110may be enabled to communicate with digital pass server system 106. Forexample, digital sign 110 may comprise a digital display or directorysimilar to those frequently encountered in shopping malls.

With reference to FIG. 2, an exemplary process 200 forgenerating/regenerating a digital pass is disclosed. For simplicity, andas used herein, the term generate may apply to both generation andregeneration of a digital pass. Thus, in an embodiment, a backend systemmay generate a digital pass in response to a request from a merchantand/or a consumer (step 202). A request may comprise a transactionrequest (i.e., a request to process a transaction/sale of an item), alogin request (i.e., a request to login to a customer and/or merchantaccount), and the like. In an embodiment, a backend system may notreceive a request; rather, a backend system may periodically and/orspontaneously generate a digital pass. A backend system may generate adigital pass on a periodic and/or spontaneous basis to capturechanges/updates made to a consumer's identity attributes (see below).

A backend system may, in response to receiving a request (and/orperiodically/spontaneously), retrieve one or more identity attributesassociated with a consumer/digital pass user (step 204). A backendsystem may retrieve identity attributes from one or more databases orfiles (not shown). These databases or files may reside on DPS 106 or ona database or fileserver coupled to DPS 106 (not shown). Identityattribute data may be entered by a consumer (i.e., a digital pass usermay enter his attribute data so that it is available for generation ofhis digital pass), and/or the data may be populated from data alreadyknown/collected about the consumer (e.g., a purchase history/transactionaccount code/phone number/etc. associated with the consumer). In thisregard, a consumer may enter his attribute data during a digital passaccount setup process. For instance, a consumer may visit a digital passaccount setup website (not shown), with which the consumer may enter hisattribute data. Similarly, a consumer may visit a digital pass accountmanagement website (not shown), with which the consumer may updateand/or edit his attribute data.

An identity attribute may be static and/or dynamic, and a digital passmay comprise a collection or group of identity attributes. A consumer'sstatic identity attributes may comprise attributes that never change orthat rarely change. For example, a consumer's static identity attributesmay comprise one or more of the following: a name, a billing address, aphone number, a date of birth, a shipping address, an email address, agender, an ethnicity, one or more biometrics, educational data, aphotograph of the consumer, one or more transaction accounts (e.g.,American Express/Visa/Mastercard/bank accounts), information associatedwith a web-client 102 (e.g., a number or identifier associated with amobile communication device), and the like. A backend system may furtherretrieve one or more dynamic identity attributes associated with aconsumer (step 206). A consumer's dynamic identity attributes maycomprise attributes that change frequently. For example, a consumer'sdynamic identity attributes may comprise a spend history, a location,one or more interests, one or more group affiliations, one or morerelationships, one or more preferences, one or more hobbies, one or moreemployers, one or more social networks, and the like.

An attribute may be variously categorized/re-categorized as a staticand/or dynamic identity attribute. The categorization orre-categorization may depend upon how often the attribute changes. Forexample, a consumer's billing address may change on such a frequentbasis that it is regarded as a dynamic identity attribute. On the otherhand, a consumer's billing address may remain unchanged for such anextended period of time that the attribute is regarded as a staticattribute. A variety of inferences may be made based upon the status(i.e., static or dynamic) associated with an attribute. For example, abilling address that changes more than a specified number of timesduring a specified period (e.g., more than once a year) may give rise tothe inference that the consumer is unstable or experiencing financialdifficulty. Likewise, a billing address that does not change for manyyears may give rise to the inference that a consumer is financiallystable. The same may be said of a consumer's phone number, shippingaddress, educational information, location, group affiliations,interests, relationships, employers, and social networks, and the like.

In an embodiment, a consumer may use a digital pass accountsetup/management website to setup and/or manage a variety of privacycontrols. For example, a consumer may specify merchants with which heagrees to do business. If a merchant is not on a consumer's list ofapproved merchants, TPS 112 may decline to process a request by themerchant. A consumer may further specify which of his identityattributes are private and which attributes, if any, he wishes to exposeto the public. A public attribute may be visible to otherconsumers/digital pass users and/or merchants. For example, a consumermay indicate that his photograph is a public attribute, in which case,other digital pass users/consumers/merchants may gain access to theconsumer's photograph. Likewise, a consumer may indicate that hisshipping address is a private attribute, in which case the consumer'sshipping address will not be shared by the backend system except, ofcourse, to permit shipping of a purchased item to the consumer.

Thus, DPS 106 may generate a digital pass by grouping one or more staticand/or dynamic identity attributes associated with a consumer. DPS 106may generate for a consumer a variety of digital passes. For example,DPS 106 may generate a full digital pass for a consumer. A full digitalpass may comprise the entire collection of identity attributes that areavailable to DPS 106 for a consumer. Likewise, DPS 106 may generate oneor more partial or filtered digital passes for a consumer. A partial orfiltered digital pass may comprise less than the entire collection ofidentity attributes available to DPS 106 for a consumer. Apartial/filtered digital pass may be generated based upon privacysettings entered by the consumer (see above). A partial/filtered digitalpass may also be generated such that it comprises the minimum number ofattributes necessary to fulfill a request.

A digital pass may be used for a large variety of purposes, many ofwhich are described below. Each of these may confer a variety ofbenefits on a digital pass user and/or a merchant with which the userinteracts. For example, a digital pass may add a great deal of securityto online and offline (i.e., in store) transactions. Moreover, a digitalpass may simplify a transaction request process (e.g., a digital passmay eliminate the necessity of filling out an online merchant form). Inaddition, a digital pass may enable a variety of social networkingand/or augmented reality functions. Any of these benefits may beachieved in a way that encourages merchant participation.

A Digital Pass May Link Consumers

With reference to FIG. 3, a process 300 for linking a digital pass userto another digital pass user is described. A digital pass user (“userA”) may be linked to another digital pass user (“user B”). User A may belinked to user B for a variety of reasons. For example, user A may belinked to user B at either user A or user B's request. Thenon-requesting user may be queried by system 100 as to whether thenon-requesting user wishes to accept the requested linkage—i.e., system100 may inquire (e.g., by sending an electronic message/inquiry/query)into whether the non-requesting user wishes to accept the requestinguser's request. If the non-requesting user agrees, the linkage may beestablished, in which case, DPS 106 may add a link between user A anduser B to each of user A's and user B's identity attributes.

In one instance, user B may comprise a beneficiary of user A. Abeneficiary may be a child (receiving an allowance), grandparent, giftrecipient, and the like. Thus, for example, user A may wish to transfera certain amount of funds from a transaction account (i.e., an identityattribute) linked to his digital pass to a transaction account linked tothe digital pass of user B (step 304). Where user A does not wish totransfer funds to user B, of course, the process 300 may terminate (step306). Where user A in fact wishes to transfer funds to user B, however,user A may indicate by way of web-client 102 that he wishes to transferfunds in a specific amount, and from a specific transaction account, touser B (step 304). DPS 106 may facilitate the transfer of funds fromuser A to user B. On receipt of these funds, user B may redeem all or aportion of the funds at a merchant (step 308). For example, where user Bis a child of user A, user B may redeem all or a portion of herallowance, which has been transferred into her transaction account(e.g., a prepaid transaction account) by way of her digital pass, with amerchant in the mall, e.g., a Claire's jewelry store (step 308).Claire's may receive payment from user B by way of her digital pass,through which user B may select the transaction account that holds herallowance (see below). Perhaps as an incentive to continue shopping withClaire's, Claire's (or another merchant), may provide a discount and/oran offer to one or both of user A and user B (step 310). For example, amerchant may provide a beneficiary digital pass user a 10% off coupon inresponse to a purchase processed through a digital pass of thebeneficiary user. Likewise, a merchant may provide a donor accountholder (e.g., user A) with a 10% off coupon towards a merchant selectedby DPS 106 (because user A, who is user B's father, does not like toshop at Claire's). DPS 106 may select a merchant from which to offeruser A a coupon or discount based upon all or a portion of user A'sidentity attributes. For example, DPS 106 may offer user A a coupon at asporting goods store based upon identity attributes (e.g., hobbies,recent purchases, and the like) indicating or suggesting that user A isa soccer player.

In an embodiment, a merchant may leverage a digital pass user'srelationships with other digital pass users and/or attributes that arecommon to a group of users to target marketing offers and/or discountsto groups of users. For example, a group of digital pass users may sharea particular identity attribute (e.g., a hobby or an association like anemployer). Similarly, a group of users may be linked, as describedabove—i.e., two or more users may opt in to a group, such asparent-child, etc. Where either of the foregoing are true, and provideda user's privacy preferences will allow it, DPS 106 may permit amerchant to target offers/discounts to all or a portion ofgrouped/linked users. A merchant may target offers to the group basedupon a variety of criteria. For example, a merchant may target membersof a group based upon a recent purchase from the merchant by a member.

A Digital Pass May Comprise a Universal Login

A digital pass may store identity attributes associated with one or morewebsites requiring login. For example, a digital pass may store identityattributes associated with a user's email addresses/accounts, a user'stransaction accounts, a user's accounts with one or more merchants, etc.Thus, a user may login, or be authenticated, to his digital pass accountin lieu of logging into, or being authenticated to, one or more otheraccounts. DPS 106 may thereupon transmit one or more identity attributes(e.g., an account identifier, a login name and password, etc.) to asecond system (e.g., a merchant system, an email system, etc.) such thatthe user is not required to enter this information. A button or othersimilar option may be provided on a webpage or login page associatedwith the second system, the selection of which may cause DPS 106 to sendthe user's login data to the appropriate second system. That is, thebutton or other option may trigger transmission, by the second system,of a uniform resource locator associated with the second system to DPS106, which may enable DPS 106 to transmit a user's login information toan appropriate server associated with the second system. The secondsystem may use this information to authenticate the user to the user'saccount on, or hosted by, the second system. Further, a website orwebpage may be personalized or modified based upon a user's digitalpass/the public identity attributes associated with his digital pass.More specifically, where a digital pass user is logged into his digitalpass account (e.g., through a merchant webpage) the merchant webpage maybe customized based upon the digital pass user's identity attributes.Thus, for example, a merchant webpage may be modified to display itemsin which a digital pass user may hold an interest, such as items ofclothing in the digital pass user's correct size and/or items that areassociated with a hobby or interest of the digital pass user.

A Digital Pass May Simplify and Safeguard Payment

With reference to FIG. 4, a process 400 for making a payment to amerchant is described. In an embodiment, a digital pass user may loginto his digital pass account (step 402). The login may include aninterface provided on a merchant's website (e.g., a button may beprovided that invites the user to login to his digital pass account). Inanother embodiment, the system may interface with a web browser to storethe digital pass. In this regard, instead of the user typing the digitalpass login info directly, the digital pass information may be stored inthe browser, and the browser may communicate with the website. Insteadof using a login form associated with a website, the system may allow auser to log in and log out of websites directly through the browser. Thesystem may also incorporate a new button or menu item in the toolbarthat enables the user to pick a login to use at any visited webpage. Thesystem stores logins that the user already established and/or the systemmay suggest a login that may be applicable to a particular webpage. Toincrease login security, the system may also generate and/or retainrandom passwords.

A user may additionally select one or more items from the merchant'swebsite that he wishes to purchase. Having selected one or more itemsfor purchase, a merchant and/consumer may transmit data associated withthese items (e.g., a transaction request) to a backend system (step404). A transaction request may further include a uniform resourcelocator (“URL”) associated with the merchant (e.g., an address for themerchant's webpage). A backend system may process the transactionrequest based upon the consumer's available credit (step 406); and abackend system may have the ability to look up/retrieve/review/obtain aconsumer's available credit by virtue of the fact that the consumer islogged into his digital pass account. U.S. application Ser. No.13/107,069, filed May 13, 2011, and entitled CLOUD ENABLED PAYMENTPROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD, which is hereby incorporated by reference,describes an embodiment of a transaction processing system.

Furthermore, where a consumer has more than one transaction account, theconsumer may select, via web-client 102, which transaction account theconsumer wishes to use to make the requested purchase. If the consumerhas sufficient credit, a backend system may approve the transactionrequest, in which case, the merchant may receive confirmation and/orpayment in the appropriate amount (step 408). On the other hand, if theconsumer has insufficient credit, a backend system may deny thetransaction request, in which case, the merchant system may not receiveconfirmation and/or payment (or a communication indicating that atransaction request has not been approved) for the requested items.Confirmation and/or payment and/or a communication to the contrary maybe received by way of the URL included in the transaction request. In anembodiment, and where a consumer has greater than a single transactionaccount, a consumer may select a different transaction account forprocessing a requested transaction. This may occur, for example, in theevent that a first selected transaction account is insufficiently fundedfor the requested transaction, or where a consumer merely prefers oneaccount to another.

Where a transaction request is approved, a consumer's shippinginformation may be transmitted to a merchant/merchant system. Thus,system 100 may eliminate the requirement that a consumer provide avariety of personal information to a merchant, including his transactionaccount information and shipping and billing addresses. Rather, system100 may shield a consumer's personal information such that the consumeris confident in making purchases online. The consumer may also be savedthe trouble of entering his personal information (e.g., his shippingaddress), as DPS 106 may supply this data to a merchant/merchant systemautomatically on approval of a transaction request.

A digital pass user may further review an organized list/partiallist/group of his purchase receipts by way of his digital pass account.Conveniently, a digital pass user is not limited to reviewing receiptsassociated with a particular merchant, although a user's receipts may begrouped or organized by DPS 106 by merchant. Thus, for example, adigital pass user may login to his digital pass account to review hisreceipts for the day, week, month, year, merchant, etc. DPS 106therefore provides a digital pass user the added advantage ofconsolidated receipt management.

A merchant may likewise benefit from interacting with consumers who havedigital passes. For example, a merchant may be provided with access to amerchant interface (not shown), which the merchant may access by way ofa web-client 102. A merchant interface may comprise a variety ofsoftware (e.g., a website or web-based system). A merchant interface mayprovide a merchant with access to a variety of information. For example,a merchant interface may provide a merchant with access to (andorganize) information about the types of consumers who shop at theirstores, the types of items each consumer purchases, the types of itemsgroups or social networks of consumers purchase, and the like. In brief,a merchant report may provide a variety of insights to a merchant basedupon one or more identity attributes and/or preferences associated withthe digital pass users who have shopped with the merchant. A merchantmay further configure a merchant interface to display one or morereports based upon the data in which the merchant is interested.

A Digital Pass May Illustrate Preferences and Trends

A digital pass may be associated with one or more preferences of adigital pass user. A preference may comprise an inference or conclusionbased upon one or more identity attributes and/or one or more otherpreferences. Thus, for example, a digital pass user's purchase historymay show that the digital pass user shops at a particular merchant orpurchases a particular item or type of item on a regular or semi-regularbasis. Likewise, a digital pass user's identity attributes may containinformation related to a hobby, or an association with a team or league.This information, in turn, may suggest that a user is interested incertain merchants, items, types of items, activities, etc. Thus, DPS 106may analyze a digital pass user's identity attributes in order togenerate one or more preferences and/or one or more possible or likelypreferences of the user. A user's preferences may comprise a largevariety of information. For example, DPS 106 may determine that a userhas a preference for sports or a certain sport, or that a user likesfood and music based upon an attribute indicating one or more purchasesat a sporting goods store and/or a restaurant or record store. Thus, ingeneral, DPS 106 may assign a variety of preferences to a user basedupon the user's identity attributes.

With reference to FIG. 5, a process 500 whereby DPS 106 may furtherassign a preference to a digital pass user based upon a user'srelationships attribute is shown. That is, DPS 106 may assign apreference to a digital pass user based upon a user's linkedrelationships (see above) and/or a user's shared attribute or attributeswith one or more other users (see above). For example, DPS 106 mayanalyze a first user's identity attributes, at which point DPS 106 maydetermine that the first user is interested in one or more items in acategory or class of items (step 502). For example, DPS 106 maydetermine that the first user is interested in the category of music,and within that category, DPS 106 may determine that the first user isspecifically interested in the following artists: Bob Dylan, Keane, andDr. Dre. DPS 106 may search a database of (similar) digital pass usersfor users having one or more interests in common with the first user, ora second/similar user may make a purchase or update his digital passattributes to reflect an interest in one or more of the foregoingartists and/or categories. In response to one or more of these actions,DPS 106 may determine/infer that the similar user may have some interestin one or more of the other artists in which the first user isinterested (step 504). Similarly, DPS 106 may determine/infer that thesimilar user is interested in a category of music (e.g., folk, rock, hiphop) based upon the similar user's resemblance to the first user (step506). DPS 106 may therefore assign the similar user a preference (e.g.,an interest in folk, rock, hip hop, or one of the above mentionedartists) based upon the discovered similarity (step 506). DPS 106 mayfurther target marketing (e.g., offers and discounts) to one or more ofthe users based upon these inferences.

In some instances, DPS 106 may determine that a similar user isinterested in an item or category in which only a first user isapparently interested (i.e., DPS 106 may make a seemingly invalidinference). With regard to the foregoing example, DPS 106 may infer thatthe similar user, like the first user, may find Dr. Dre appealing,although the similar user's identity attributes would otherwiserecommend against such a conclusion (e.g., the similar user's identityattributes show an interest in rock music only). However, based upon asimilarity between the first user and the similar user, DPS 106 maynevertheless assign a tentative preference (or target marketing) to thesimilar user indicating a potential interest in the unlikelyitem/category. For example, with reference to the foregoing example, DPS106 may assign a tentative preference for Dr. Dre and/or hip hop music(the genre to which Dr. Dre's must most likely belongs) to the similaruser, despite the similar user's apparent interest only in rock music.(step 506). Thus, DPS 106 may assign a preference to a similar digitalpass user when the interest is categorized in a category of preferencesalready associated with the similar digital pass user. In contrast, DPS106 may assign a preference to a similar digital pass user which is notcategorized in a category of preferences already associated with thesimilar digital pass user.

A Digital Pass May Facilitate and Enhance a User's Interaction with thePhysical World

In an embodiment, a merchant may access a digital pass user's (public)identity attributes and/or preferences in order to recommend items tothe user. For example, a user may log into his digital pass account (seeabove) from a merchant website. DPS 106 may make certain informationabout the user available to the merchant website. For instance, DPS 106may transmit a gender, a clothing size, and/or preference to themerchant website. The merchant website may use the information providedby DPS 106 about the user to filter the items displayed for the user bythe website such that the user is only presented with items suited tothe user. For example, where the merchant website sells clothing, themerchant website may filter the clothing displayed for sale to the userto that which is currently available in the user's size.

In an embodiment, a user's digital pass may comprise an identityattribute associated with a mobile communication device (i.e., aweb-client 102) of the user. Where the user's mobile communicationdevice 102 comprises a GPS enabled device (or where the location of thedevice is otherwise available), DPS 106 may provide a merchant with auser's location, again, assuming that the user's location attribute isset to public in the user's privacy settings.

A digital pass may be associated with biometric information (see above)about a consumer. For example, a digital pass may comprise an image orrepresentation of a consumer's retina and/or a consumer's facialfeatures. In response to detecting and/or capturing an image of aconsumer's biometric information (e.g., perhaps by way of a cameraand/or other imaging device mounted in a merchant location), a merchantmay present one or more offers and/or discounts to a consumer and/ordirect a retail attendant to show the user certain items (e.g., clothingin a certain size). For example, a consumer, walking in to a merchantlocation and/or a mall, may be presented with an offer for 10% off of apurchase from the merchant. Likewise, a merchant may present an offerand/or discount for an item in which the consumer may have some interest(e.g., an item of clothing in the consumer's size and/or based upon theconsumer's gender, preferences, etc.). As described above, a merchantmay make such an offer based upon one or more attributes and/orpreferences associated with a consumer's digital pass. An offer may bedisplayed for a consumer by way of any hardware and/or softwareconfigured or configurable to display an image or otherwise announce theoffer. For example, digital sign 110 may display an offer/discount.

A merchant may further direct a digital pass user to one or more itemsbased upon the user's location. Thus, for example, a digital pass usermay upload or generate a grocery or shopping list prior to entering amerchant location (e.g., a grocery store). As the user travels up anddown the aisles of the store, the user's mobile communication device (anidentity attribute) may be configured to guide the user to the locationof the next item on the user's list, or the next closest item on theuser's list.

In an embodiment, a digital pass may play a part in an augmented realitysystem (not shown). For example, a digital pass user, while shopping,driving, walking, etc., may wear augmented reality goggles/spectacles,which may communicate with an augmented reality system to highlightand/or display information about a variety of objects and/or items inthe digital pass user's field of vision of physical vicinity. A digitalpass user's mobile communication device/web-client 102 may perform thesame function. Thus, a digital pass user may enter a merchant location,whereupon he may be presented (through his augmented realitygoggles/spectacles/mobile communication device) with information aboutsales items, items in his size, items in which the merchant believes theuser will have some interest (again, based fully or partly on the user'sidentity attributes and/or preferences), etc. A user may further bepresented with a digital or virtual wardrobe based upon a merchant'sinventory, the user's identity attributes, and/or the user'spreferences.

A digital pass may facilitate and simplify a digital pass user'sinteraction with a public transit system. For example, a digital passuser may enter a public transportation system (e.g., the Metro whichcriss-crosses the Washington D.C. metro area) without swiping a bus pass(e.g., a SmartCard) or entering another form of payment. Rather, becausethe digital pass user's biometric information comprises an identityattribute, an image of the user may be captured as the user enters thepublic transportation system. Likewise, an image of the user may becaptured as the user exits the public transportation system. The publictransportation system may therefore accurately compute a fare for theuser, which the system may forward or submit to a DPS 106 and/or a TPS112, which system(s) may supply payment. Thus, a digital pass user'spublic transportation experience may be greatly simplified.

With reference now to FIG. 6, a digital pass may also facilitate andsimplify a digital pass user's interaction with a fee station in aparking garage, on a turnpike, and the like. Initially, a backend systemmay receive a location and/or a biometric associated with a digital passuser (step 602). Where a backend system receives a location of a user,the backend system may generate a query for the user asking whether hewishes to pay in advance for an upcoming toll or fee (step 604). If theuser confirms his desire to effectuate payment prior to his arrival (orupon his arrival) at the fee station, a backend system may arrange forpayment as described more generally above (step 606). Where, on theother hand, a backend system receives a biometric associated with a user(which, incidentally, an image capture system associated with a feestation may record), the user's web-client 102 (e.g., his mobilecommunication device) may present a payment option. Here as well, if theuser confirms his desire to effectuate payment, the user's may do soprior to or upon his arrival at the fee station (depending upon thelocation of the biometric capture device) (step 606).

A Digital Pass May be Useful in the Workplace

In an embodiment, an employee (e.g., a corporate employee) may simplifyor aggregate a variety of work related tasks using his digital pass. Forexample, an employee may log in to and/or access one or more of hisemployer's systems (e.g., his employer's mail server) using his digitalpass. This might be accomplished by way of an identity attribute in theemployee's digital pass that saves the employee's username and/or logininformation for the employer's system(s). An employee may further log-invia any of his employer's workstations, which may be provided on avariety of campuses or scattered across a variety of locations. Thus, anemployee may log in irrespective of his location. Furthermore, a digitalpass may make an employee's location available to one or more otheremployees. Thus, irrespective of the workstation selected by anemployee, other employees may easily locate the employee by virtue ofthe fact that the employee is logged into the (uniquely located)workstation. Further still, a digital pass may record an employee'slogin time and logout time, which information an employer may use for avariety of purposes (e.g., to record access data, to fill out a timeslip, etc.) Having logged into his employer's system(s), an employee maybe furnished with his daily calendar and/or the software and/or data towhich he may require access during the day, based upon his calendaredactivities.

An employee may further utilize his digital pass to make purchases on acorporate account. For example, an employee's corporate transactionaccount (issued through his employer) may be linked to the employee'sdigital pass; that is, an employee's corporate transaction account maycomprise an identity attribute, in the same way that his one or morepersonal transaction accounts may comprise identity attributes. However,where the employee is engaged in business on behalf of his employer(e.g., he is purchasing lunch for a client, he is making travelreservations to travel to a field office, etc.), the employee mayselect, instead of a personal transaction account, his corporatetransaction account. This may be accomplished through the use of aweb-client 102, such as the employee's mobile communication device.Having selected his corporate transaction account, a backend system mayprocess payment through this account. At this point, an employer, like amerchant (see above) may have access to an employer interface (asopposed to a merchant interface, but similar in purpose), through whichthe employer may generate a variety of reports. For instance, anemployer may review an employee's time at work for a particular timeperiod (day, week, month, year, etc.), an employee's spending history,and the like.

In the detailed description herein, references to “one embodiment”, “anembodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicate that the embodimentdescribed may include a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include theparticular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrasesare not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within theknowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure,or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or notexplicitly described. After reading the description, it will be apparentto one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the disclosure incertain embodiments.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the particular machines, andthose hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as would beappreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000, XP, Vista, OS2, UNIX, Linux,Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well as various conventional support softwareand drivers typically associated with computers. A user may include anyindividual, business, entity, government organization, software and/orhardware that interact with a system.

In an embodiment, various components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windows mobileoperating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, a Blackberryoperating system and the like. The micro-app may be configured toleverage the resources of the larger operating system and associatedhardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern the operations ofvarious operating systems and hardware resources. For example, where amicro-app desires to communicate with a device or network other than themobile device or mobile operating system, the micro-app may leverage thecommunication protocol of the operating system and associated devicehardware under the predetermined rules of the mobile operating system.Moreover, where the micro-app desires an input from a user, themicro-app may be configured to request a response from the operatingsystem which monitors various hardware components and then communicatesa detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, or object-oriented structure and/or any other databaseconfigurations. Common database products that may be used to implementthe databases include DB2 by IBM (Armonk, N.Y.), various databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores, Calif.),Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by Microsoft Corporation(Redmond, Wash.), MySQL by MySQL AB (Uppsala, Sweden), or any othersuitable database product. Moreover, the databases may be organized inany suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookup tables. Eachrecord may be a single file, a series of files, a linked series of datafields or any other data structure. Association of certain data may beaccomplished through any desired data association technique such asthose known or practiced in the art. For example, the association may beaccomplished either manually or automatically. Automatic associationtechniques may include, for example, a database search, a databasemerge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, using a key field in the tables to speedsearches, sequential searches through all the tables and files, sortingrecords in the file according to a known order to simplify lookup,and/or the like. The association step may be accomplished by a databasemerge function, for example, using a “key field” in pre-selecteddatabases or data sectors. Various database tuning steps arecontemplated to optimize database performance. For example, frequentlyused files such as indexes may be placed on separate file systems toreduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In one exemplary embodiment, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored on the financial transaction instrument orexternal to but affiliated with the financial transaction instrument.The BLOB method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formattedas a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixedstorage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices withrespect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used,etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store various data setsthat have different formats facilitates the storage of data associatedwith the financial transaction instrument by multiple and unrelatedowners of the data sets. For example, a first data set which may bestored may be provided by a first party, a second data set which may bestored may be provided by an unrelated second party, and yet a thirddata set which may be stored, may be provided by an third partyunrelated to the first and second party. Each of these three exemplarydata sets may contain different information that is stored usingdifferent data storage formats and/or techniques. Further, each data setmay contain subsets of data that also may be distinct from othersubsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, in one exemplary embodiment, thedata set (e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standard manner whenprovided for manipulating the data onto the financial transactioninstrument. The annotation may comprise a short header, trailer, orother appropriate indicator related to each data set that is configuredto convey information useful in managing the various data sets. Forexample, the annotation may be called a “condition header”, “header”,“trailer”, or “status”, herein, and may comprise an indication of thestatus of the data set or may include an identifier correlated to aspecific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by a standalone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, or augmentthe data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, in oneembodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the transactioninstrument user at the stand alone device, the appropriate option forthe action to be taken. The system may contemplate a data storagearrangement wherein the header or trailer, or header or trailer history,of the data is stored on the transaction instrument in relation to theappropriate data.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

A firewall may comprise any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto protect system 100 components and/or enterprise computing resourcesfrom users of other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured tolimit or restrict access to various systems and components behind thefirewall for web clients 102 connecting through a web server. A firewallmay reside in varying configurations including Stateful Inspection,Proxy based, access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. Afirewall may be integrated within a web server or any other CMScomponents or may further reside as a separate entity. A firewall mayimplement network address translation (“NAT”) and/or network addressport translation (“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunnelingprotocols to facilitate secure communications, such as those used invirtual private networking. A firewall may implement a demilitarizedzone (“DMZ”) to facilitate communications with a public network such asthe Internet. A firewall may be integrated as software within anInternet server, any other application server components or may residewithin another computing device or may take the form of a standalonehardware component.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, and symmetric and asymmetriccryptosystems.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript And XML), helper applications, plug-ins, andthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB SERVICES:A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphereMQTM (formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

As used herein, the term “end user”, “consumer”, “customer”,“cardmember”, “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably witheach other, and each shall mean any person, entity, machine, hardware,software or business. A bank may be part of the system, but the bank mayrepresent other types of card issuing institutions, such as credit cardcompanies, card sponsoring companies, or third party issuers undercontract with financial institutions. It is further noted that otherparticipants may be involved in some phases of the transaction, such asan intermediary settlement institution, but these participants are notshown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order tointeract with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions.The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones,touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unitimplemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computingcenter shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computingcenter may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PCserver, a network of computers located in the same of differentgeographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, upgraded software, a stand alone system, a distributed system,a method, a data processing system, a device for data processing, and/ora computer program product. Accordingly, the system may take the form ofan entirely software embodiment, an entirely hardware embodiment, or anembodiment combining aspects of both software and hardware. Furthermore,the system may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program codemeans embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable computer-readablestorage medium may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, opticalstorage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the inventionshave been described as a method in certain embodiments, it iscontemplated that it may be embodied as computer program instructions ona tangible computer-readable carrier, such as a magnetic or opticalmemory or a magnetic or optical disk. All structural, chemical, andfunctional equivalents to the elements of the above-described exemplaryembodiments that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art areexpressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to beencompassed by the present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for adevice or method to address each and every problem sought to be solvedby the present disclosure, for it to be encompassed by the presentclaims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in thepresent disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardlessof whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recitedin the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed under theprovisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, unless the element isexpressly recited using the phrase “means for.” As used herein, theterms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does notinclude only those elements but may include other elements not expresslylisted or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

1. A method comprising: authenticating, by a computer-based system foremployer use of a digital pass, a digital pass user to an employernetwork, wherein a digital pass comprises a group of identityattributes; tracking, by the computer-based system, the amount of timethe digital pass user is logged into the employer network; reporting, bythe computer-based system, the amount of time to the employer of thedigital pass user; and transmitting, by the computer-based system,software based upon an identity attribute associated with the digitalpass based upon a need of the digital pass user.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the authenticating comprises transmitting, by thecomputer-based system, login information to the employer network,wherein the login information is associated with a digital pass accountof the digital pass user, and wherein the login information permits theemployer system to authenticate the digital pass user to a user accounthosted by the employer system.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising saving to the employer network, by the computer-based system,a workstation address from which the digital pass user is authenticated.4. The method of claim 3, further comprising transmitting, by thecomputer-based system, a location of the workstation to another digitalpass user.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting tothe digital pass user, by the computer-based system, at least one of: acalendar, software, and data.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein at leastone of: the software and the data are transmitted based upon ananticipated need of the digital pass user.
 7. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving, by the computer-based system, atransaction request associated with a corporate transaction account;transmitting, by the-computer-based system, the transaction request to atransaction processing system; receiving, by the computer-based system,a confirmation from the transaction processing system; and transmitting,by the computer-based system, the confirmation to a device associatedwith the digital pass user.
 8. An article of manufacture including anon-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium havinginstructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by acomputer-based system for employer use of a digital pass, cause thecomputer-based system to perform operations comprising: authenticating,by the computer-based system, a digital pass user to an employernetwork, wherein a digital pass comprises a group of identityattributes; tracking, by the computer-based system, the amount of timethe digital pass user is logged into the employer network; reporting, bythe computer-based system, the amount of time to the employer of thedigital pass user; and transmitting, by the computer-based system,software based upon an identity attribute associated with the digitalpass based upon a need of the digital pass user.
 9. The article of claim8, wherein the authenticating comprises transmitting, by thecomputer-based system, login information to the employer network,wherein the login information is associated with a digital pass accountof the digital pass user, and wherein the login information permits theemployer system to authenticate the digital pass user to a user accounthosted by the employer system.
 10. The article of claim 8, furthercomprising saving to the employer network, by the computer-based system,a workstation address from which the digital pass user is authenticated.11. The article of claim 10, further comprising transmitting to anotherdigital pass user, by the computer-based system, a location of theworkstation.
 12. The article of claim 8, further comprising transmittingto the digital pass user, by the computer-based system, at least one of:a calendar, software, and data.
 13. The article of claim 12, wherein atleast one of the software and the data are transmitted based upon ananticipated need of the digital pass user.
 14. The article of claim 8,further comprising: receiving, by the computer-based system, atransaction request associated with a corporate transaction account;transmitting, by the-computer-based system, the transaction request to atransaction processing system; receiving, by the computer-based system,a confirmation from the transaction processing system; and transmitting,by the computer-based system, the confirmation to a device associatedwith the digital pass user.
 15. A system comprising: a tangible,non-transitory memory communicating with a processor for employer use ofa digital pass, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructionsstored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, causethe processor to perform operations comprising: authenticating, by theprocessor, a digital pass user to an employer network, wherein a digitalpass comprises a group of identity attributes; tracking, by theprocessor, the amount of time the digital pass user is logged into theemployer network; reporting, by the processor, the amount of time to theemployer of the digital pass user; and transmitting, by the processor,software based upon an identity attribute associated with the digitalpass based upon a need of the digital pass user.
 16. The system of claim15, wherein the authenticating comprises transmitting, by the processor,login information to the employer network, wherein the login informationis associated with a digital pass account of the digital pass user, andwherein the login information permits the employer system toauthenticate the digital pass user to a user account hosted by theemployer system.
 17. The system of claim 15, further comprising savingto the employer network, by the processor, a workstation address fromwhich the digital pass user is authenticated.
 18. The system of claim17, further comprising transmitting to another digital pass user, by theprocessor, a location of the workstation.
 19. The system of claim 15,further comprising transmitting to the digital pass user, by theprocessor, at least one of: a calendar, software, and data.
 20. Thesystem of claim 19, wherein at least one of: the software and the dataare transmitted based upon an anticipated need of the digital pass user.